The snow had gone, but there was still ice down in the shady sections of the canyon.  ‘Twas a good hike, nice cool temperature.

The Hike

Statistics

Total Distance:  1.50 miles
Elevation: start 6,017 ft, maximum 6,509 ft,  minimum 6,017 ft
Gross gain: 492 ft.  Aggregate ascending 604 ft, descending 706 ft
Maximum slope: 57% ascending, 51% descending, 14% average
Duration: 1:11

If you haven’t explored these hiking tracks with Google Earth, I urge you to try it. With the virtual 3-dimensional presentation, achieved by panning and tilting the view, you can get a much better idea of the hikes and terrain than you can get from the screenshot above. For some ideas, check out  Using Google Earth Track Files.

George's Photos: Click on a Photo for Gallery Show.

This was a return to a trail that we’ve done before, back in 2013 and 2014.  Close to Placitas and the Cafe where we regularly meet for breakfast before hiking, it is a good workout.  

The Hike

From parking midway around Forest Loop Road, the entrance to the canyon is fairly wide.  But it soon narrows and becomes quite narrow as one ascends in the canyon bottom.  At about .9 mile into the hike one encounters the first of a number of rocky climbs.  These are in no way treacherous, no scrambling is involved, but one must work up rock-over-rock, and come down slowly and carefully.  (These sections of rock or steep incline can be picked out from the Profile below the GoogleEarth image above.  The blue line shows our speed – where our speed is low we’re working our way up, or down, those rocky stretches.)

Weather was iffy for this hike, taking place midway through a period of windy and wet weather common in the Mountain West.  Temperature was comfortable to start out, but the wind was quite strong coming down the canyon.  As we ascended from the 6,000 ft elevation towards the max of 7,200 ft, the temperature dropped from fiftyish to the low 40s. And a squall formed over the north end of the Sandias, delivering some light snow while we had coffee and started back down the canyon.  Upon returning to the car we were in sunshine and fiftyish temperature again.

Jay here: You can call it a squall or you can call it a lateral tornado. Either way, the canyon was acting like a funnel for the high winds. Thanks to our handy myBlue-T temperature app (sensor attached to backpack, app on the iPhone) we determined that it was 41 degrees at 7,200 ft, but if you throw in windchill, it felt more like 35 degrees. Not the kind of coffee break where you linger.

Statistics

Total Distance: 3.36 miles
Elevation: 6,087 start, 7,217 maximum,  6,087 minimum
Gross gain: 1,130 ft.  Aggregate ascending 1,195 ft, descending: 1.196 ft
Maximum slope: 39% ascending, 44% descending, 13% average
Duration: 3:32

I urge you to explore our hiking tracks with Google Earth. With the virtual 3-dimensional presentation, achieved by panning and tilting the view, you can get a much better idea of the hikes and terrain than you can get from the 2-dimensional screenshot above. For assistance: Using Google Earth Track Files.

Jay's Photos w/ Captions: Click on Photo to show Gallery.

George's Photos w/ Captions: Click on Photo to show Gallery.

Having only limited time on this Sunday, we chose a trail close to Placitas and not too great in length.  We had hike Agua Sarca back in 2014, remembering it as relatively easy but little more.  

The Hike

It was an easy hike, no really steep areas, with only a couple of stretches of rocky trail surface.  Not shaded as much as around on the east slope of the Sandias, but the juniper, pinon, and occasional ponderosa make it pleasant on warm days.

The ridge to the east of the trail is quite impressive, and for a while we thought that it is the section of the ‘Sandia rind’ along which we hiked two years ago, the North Crest to Ojo del Orno hike.  A section of the North Crest a narrow trail with cliff going nearly straight up on our left, and straight down on our right, both for hundreds of feet.  So throughout this hike we were trying to find that section on the cliff above.  At some point, we came to the conclusion that it was on this cliff, but the one beyond, the northern section which we could see round the end of the adjacent ridge; I even believed I could pick out the section of that cliff where the trail traversed.  How wrong we were; see the screen shot below.

Statistics

Total Distance: 2.52 miles
Elevation: 6,367 start, 7,075 maximum, 6,367 minimum
Gross gain: 708 ft.  Aggregate ascending 931 ft, descending: 924ft
Maximum slope: 52% ascending, 48% descending, 12% average
Duration: 2:55

Jay's Photos w/ Captions: Click on a Photo for Gallery Show.

George's Photos w/ Captions: Click on a Photo for Gallery Show.

Introduction

Second hike on the Palomas Peak trail, this time with clear weather.  

The Hike

We went further than the previous hike, close to half of the total distance to the upper end of this trail.

Statistics

Total Distance:  5.01 miles
Elevation: start  7,071 ft, maximum  7,071 ft,  minimum  8,074 ft
Gross gain:  1,003 ft.  Aggregate ascending  1,553 ft, descending  1,560 ft
Maximum slope: 35% ascending, 40% descending, 10,2% average
Duration: 3:50

If you haven’t explored these hiking tracks with Google Earth, I urge you to try it. With the virtual 3-dimensional presentation, achieved by panning and tilting the view, you can get a much better idea of the hikes and terrain than you can get from the screenshot above. For some ideas, check out  Using Google Earth Track Files.

References

ASCHG:
      Palomas Peak Two Ways Hike
      Palomas Peak Downhill to Sandia Man Cave Hike

Jay's Photos: Click on a Photo for Gallery Show